tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51565915125352522002024-03-13T04:25:33.631-06:00Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual SongsA discussion of historical and current hymnody.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14231678181223095538noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156591512535252200.post-34614924185205032032010-01-08T21:45:00.003-06:002010-01-09T16:32:09.371-06:00A New SongToday a committee of five of my colleagues gathered to judge the student entries in a Song Contest. The goal had been to elicit a song to be sung by the congregation of thousands that gather annually at our institution's winter conference.<br /><br />We judged each song on these four criteria:<br /> 1. Support of the Conference theme<br /> 2. Strength of the lyrics<br /> 3. Integrity of the music<br /> 4. Singability for a general audience<br /><br />The judges were unaware of author and composer's names.<br /><br />What came out of our deliberations were the following shocking and realistic truths about the drought of creative lyric and melodic artistic expression in the current generation of young people. The following are short descriptions of factors we discovered in the pieces as we judged them:<br /><br /> rambling<br /> tedious<br /> wrong theme and focus<br /> inappropriate thoughts and language for congregational singing<br /> incomplete thoughts<br /> text phrases that were nonsense<br /> pointless lyrics<br /> lyrics not elevated nor elevating<br /> archaic and awkward language: "fervor," "fathom," "bosom," "inaugurated," "status," "traitor's stead," "allured," "whet my appetite," "burn the snake out from its hole," "sin the feces, I the fly."<br /> lack of rhyme<br /> incorrect word accents<br /> unrememberable melody<br /> pitch paucity (not enough variety of notes)<br /> harmonic clashes / melodic cross relationships<br /> obviously poor harmonic movement<br /> musical illiteracy<br /> notational incorrectness<br /> lack of logical form (unity, variety, balance)<br /> love song mentality<br /> melodic range issues (too low / too high)<br /> theological issues<br /> lyric and melodic doodling for a bar-stool crooner<br /><br />To say that young people today are unaware of the wealth of high language and melodic art is to put it lightly. I am always devastated to get no positive response from a group to an acquaintance with a standard hymn.<br /><br />I sense no antagonism to the awesome body of hymnic resources. It's just that our congregations are choosing to go in another direction to the great distraction of those whose desire is to worship in the spirit of holiness.<br /><br />Finely crafted and divinely inspired songwriting is a gift to the Church. Pray for artisans who will lead the Church out of its mindless music, faithless fashionistas, and sissy singing.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14231678181223095538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156591512535252200.post-42868986794964891102009-03-17T15:29:00.004-06:002009-03-17T15:55:45.269-06:00Two popular hymn-related, on-line sources<span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" >If you spend as much time doing hymnological things as I do you have undoubtedly run into two of the sites that will give running loops of music examples. For any hymntune you search and which these sites find you may immediately hear a digital playing of a 4-part (SATB, hymnbook-style) version.<br /><br />One is The Oremus Hymnal at <a href="http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/">http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/</a> which is being migrated to WIKI format at <a href="http://hymnal.oremus.org/hwiki/index.php/Main_Page">http://hymnal.oremus.org/hwiki/index.php/Main_Page.</a><br /><br />The other site is Cyber Hymnal (now known as NetHymnal) at<a href="http://www.cyberhymnal.org/"> http://www.cyberhymnal.org/</a>.<br /><br />These two sites are very helpful with biographical information on authors and composers. There was the "annoying" part of the constantly looping hymntune playback at less-than-human expression and often with full tremulants.<br /><br />If you are looking for source materials you will probably find them here.<br /><br /><br /></span>Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14231678181223095538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156591512535252200.post-28078605972219788972009-03-13T20:47:00.004-06:002009-03-13T21:01:54.968-06:00Hymn resource<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">One of the best sources for hymnological study is the Calvin Hymnary Project <a href="http://www.hymnary.org/">http://www.hymnary.org/</a>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I use it every day to find texts, tunes, authors, composers, hymnals, meters . . . it's all there . . . like having a stack of hymnals and encyclopedias at my desk. I still do have a stack of hymnals that I'm using all the time . . . 18 at last count.</span><br /></span>Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14231678181223095538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5156591512535252200.post-48210584671481305042009-03-10T18:22:00.002-06:002009-03-13T21:04:59.576-06:00Singing to Live<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Since April 2008 my daily "diet" has been psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. That was the month and year I began the consuming task of "engraving" over 400 songs for our proposed church hymnal.<br /><br />As a school teacher there was no three-month summer vacation in 2008. The days were often twelve or even fourteen hours sitting at the computer inputting music. In fact, I worked on the project every day of Christmas vacation (even on the Chicago - Los Angeles - Chicago flights to visit family).<br /><br />So why do I submit to this "torture" (as my chiropractor calls it)? Because I believe in congregational song and will give what I can to encourage its survival.<br /></span></span>Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14231678181223095538noreply@blogger.com2